Monday, July 11, 2016

Final Training For Badwater

The last few months have been busy training for Badwater. It's crazy to think that this 135 mile dance through Death Valley is coming up in exactly one week from today!

I feel pretty good about where I'm at. I feel like I've done the best I could in training, and now I just need to show up at the starting line and see what happens. Over the past few months I've done a 30+ mile run every week. Some of those runs were on trails:

A few of those 30+ mile runs were at Three Falls Park which has a 1/4 mile track around it. I ran that quarter mile loop over and over again for 30 miles.

Usually what I did was to take a grocery sack full of food and snacks, and then a cooler full of ice and water. I also mixed up a few gallons of Tailwind so I could quickly refill my bottle and keep running.

But most of my training miles have been on the road. This may sound strange, but I had to teach myself how to run on the road again. I've been running primarily trails for so many years which is quite different than running on the road.

My last long training run was a solo 50 miler on the roads around Hurricane, Utah. I think I ran every single street in that city. Some of them multiple times. The 50 miler went fairly well overall. My body seemed acclimated to the heat, and the 106 degree temps were tolerable. I was surprised that someone left this striped jump rope on the side of the road.

In the evening I stopped by the house for dinner. Mel had bought me a gigantic burrito and I accidentally ate the entire thing. Woops.

I ran, and ran, (and speed walked), and ran, (with more speed walking), and ran. I aggressively flashed Twinkie gang signs at neighborhood kids when they mocked my long Badwater hat.

Although I am scared about the race, I have some comfort in knowing that I did the best I could in my training with what I had to work with, and the time I had available.

Before I know it, I'll be in the midst of a 135 mile rotisserie oven. Badwater.....I'm coming for you!

It's been inspiring, fun, and educational (that Twinkie gang sign will come in handy) following your progress as you prepare for this race. Thank you for sharing and making it clear that no normal person should even vaguely entertain ideas of running Badwater, but that abnormal ones (which include most of those that read these posts) should go for it! Have a great race!

OMG, less than one week. Good luck, good luck. You totally have this. I'll send some nice cool energy down from Alaska to bless your very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very hot shoulders. Take care. Race smart.